Published in Gaming

DICE makes PC owners unhappy

by on04 February 2011


Cancels Battlefield 1943 & BFBC2 Onslaught add-on
After a lot of waiting and promises from DICE, the studio officially announced that they were officially cancelling the PC versions of Battlefield 1943, and the PC version of the Onslaught add-on for Battlefield Bad Company 2. Both had been said to be in development for PC Battlefield fans.

The news from DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson on the DICE blog confirms the vague rumblings that we have been hearing for several weeks that a decision had be made to cancel the PC versions of 1943 and Onslaught because the resources were needed to work on Battlefield 3.

While Troedsson indicates in his post that the decision to cancel the PC versions of 1943 and Onslaught was a difficult one, it was a necessary one to shift focus to the upcoming release of Battlefield 3. Troedsson does, however, indicate that the studio intends to continue to support the PC release of Battlefield Bad Company 2. It is unclear, however, as to what “support” entails; but we suspect that it likely means bug fixes and minor enhancements and doubtful that there will be any additional content beyond a possible map or two.

The Battlefield community seems to be very unhappy with the decision. While many are excited about the upcoming release of Battlefield 3 for the PC that has been promised to be more than just a console port, a good number of players really seem to have wanted the release of 1943 on the PC. The community seems a little more split on the Onslaught add-on, from what we can tell, with some suggesting that it really does not matter, while others think it should be offered since DICE released it for the console versions.

The focus on Battlefield 3 is understandable, given the news from owner Electronic Arts that they are much more intent on attempting to recapture the FPS crown from Activision with a number of FPS releases. While currently the details on Battlefield 3 are few, we know that we will start to hear more about Battlefield 3 and its Frostbite 2 engine in a lecture from Kenny Magnusson at GDC.

Look for a trailer for Battlefield 3 to show up today and an upcoming spread in Game Informer magazine, including it being featured on the cover. It is expected that EA will then kick off the full court press on Battlefield 3 with a full blown announcement and showing at E3 in June. Currently, the title is still expected to ship yet this year, according to the latest information that we have.
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